Mainframe Developer

Aquent is partnering with a leading financial services organization dedicated to innovation and excellence in the financial industry. This organization plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of financial technology, impacting millions of users through its robust and cutting-edge platforms. Join a team that values forward-thinking solutions and a commitment to high-quality delivery.

Please note: This position is available on a W-2 employment basis only and is not open to Corp-to-Corp (C2C) arrangements. The client is also unable to provide employment-based visa sponsorship or transfers for this role.

About the Role: Drive Modernization and Innovation

We are seeking a highly experienced and passionate technologist to spearhead the modernization of critical financial applications. In this impactful role, you will be at the forefront of transforming legacy mainframe systems, bridging them with modern distributed architectures, and leveraging the power of AI to redefine productivity. You will not just maintain systems; you will innovate, design, and implement solutions that directly enhance our processing capabilities and contribute to the evolution of our financial technology landscape. Your expertise will be crucial in shaping the future of our platforms, making a tangible difference in how we deliver services and operate.

What You Will Do

• Architect, design, develop, and implement complex software solutions, specifically focusing on interfaces between legacy mainframe and distributed applications.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deeply understand business requirements and identify prime opportunities for application modernization.
• Lead the solutioning, design, and implementation of comprehensive modernization strategies, including mainframe migration, refactoring, and establishing seamless callouts to distributed platforms.
• Evaluate existing legacy systems to propose and implement solutions that significantly improve performance, scalability, and maintainability.
• Develop and maintain automated processes for legacy applications, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and reliability.
• Actively stay current with emerging technologies and industry trends, particularly those related to legacy application modernization and AI.
• Act as a mentor for technical teams, providing guidance, support, and knowledge sharing to augment skillsets in both Mainframe and Distributed Technologies.
• Utilize AI coding tools and Agentic AI to increase personal and team productivity, fostering a culture of innovation.
• Demonstrate a strong commitment to adhering to project timelines and consistently delivering high-quality results within specified deadlines.
• Proactively address obstacles and challenges to ensure the timely completion of tasks and projects.

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong experience with high-volume transactions processing, particularly within the brokerage domain.
• 10+ years of extensive experience in mainframe technologies, including COBOL, JCL, DB2, Datacom, SQL, SQL Stored Procedures, Messaging Queues (IBM MQ, Kafka), CICS, Easytrieve, REXX, and SORT utilities.
• 10+ years of experience as a software developer, with at least 3+ years in a lead or co-lead role.
• 3-4 years of hands-on experience with tools such as Control-M, ChangeMan, FileAid, Xpeditor, TOAD, and SPUFI.
• Proven track record of participating in the architecture solution, design, and development of complex, enterprise-level software systems.
• Demonstrated experience utilizing AI and AI agents to significantly increase productivity.
• Good knowledge and hands-on experience in the Financial Industry, specifically with Brokerage Business and transactions processing/Balances/Positions.
• Strong understanding of software architecture patterns, design principles, and scalability considerations.
• Excellent problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making skills.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally.
• Experience in mentoring software development teams, including geographically distributed teams.
• Extensive experience with legacy applications modernization.

Nice-to-Haves

• Exposure to Distributed & Cloud technologies (e.g., GCP, Java, Javascript, .NET, C#, Springboot, MongoDB, Cloud, Postgres, etc.) and various AI tools.
• Some experience and familiarity with file transmissions, Cloud environments, Callouts from Mainframe to Distributed services, Security Tokens, and authentication mechanisms.
• Strong preference for experience with high-volume brokerage transactions processing and posting, both batch and real-time.